first, that's not fact, that's opinion. but i'll give you that 2d has an artistic flair that's unique to the medium. that doesn't make it the best looking thing ever. and your last sentence again, is based entirely on opinion. There are those who do find Capcom's new stuff okay, maybe not great, but definitely above terrible.
secondly, animation is all about expression and style. if you look at any 3d game and say oh it's focus is on realism... i'll look at you and say get the fuck out of here with that bull shit and stop tellin bold faced lies. because it all really depends on what they're (the production house) trying to achieve as their style. it holds true in 2d, and is even more so in 3d, because 3d comes with that aforementioned stigma. but guess what? the universal truth on animation is this:
it's not about realism. it's about belief.
If the animator can get you to believe that the animation looks like it can be done in real life or in that particular universe. then the animation succeeded. it doesn't matter if it's 2d or 3d. that's the end goal for every animator in this world when they create an animation. If you want to look at 3d games.. look at the Uncharted Series, look at the beast in the Last Guardian, look at Naruto Ultimate ninja storm series or even Asura's Wrath or hell.. Catherine. There are people out there who prefer the In-game cutscenes and feel that the anime cut scenes are too much of a breakaway from the game, and feel that the in game cutscenes are all that's needed. Just because some companies try to shoot for LA-Noir look, doesn't mean every single game is shooting for that look.
in terms of movies or animated films, how many people saw Tangled and wasn't reminded of the classic 90's disney era? You see movies like How to Train your Dragon, Ice Age, Toy story, kung fu panda, to Rango, Polar Express, Happy Feet and Shrek. You don't notice the range of style? Ask yourself this, can you tell the difference between a key-framed animation and mocap? can you tell the difference between keyed animation and rotoscope? Don't tell me 3d has less character because that's not true at all. If anything 3d has to focus on character because it's easy to get caught up with the stigma that 3d usually has... "it's trying to be real."
but my professor once asked us a question.. "what's the point of doing a 3d animation if all you're trying to do is mimic reality?" which he then followed with, "if realism is your goal, why not just pick up a camera, set up some light rigs, get a decent mic, and shoot live action?"
to that end, style is very important when it comes to 3d. even between the fighting games, there is a distinction between them all. Soul calibur has a different look compared to tekken. Tekken looks nothing like Street fighter. and virtua fighter also approaches things differently opposed to Mortal Kombat. I mean looking at Capcom alone, all their 3d fighting games has a different look.
let's get it straight. what you're going on about isn't about style. it's about preference. you prefer 2d, that's fine. I just find that a lot of the stuff you do in 2d, can now be done in 3d. i mean look at the new Street fighter X tekken cinematic trailer. Sure looks pretty.....
but let's get back to animation.. because i love talkin about animation. one thing 2d has over 3d is the ability to cheat. It's harder to do these types of cheats in 3d because in 2d you can shoot at ones and twos.. threes and fours.. you can hold frames and all that... where as in 3d.. while you can do the same with holding.. the entire animation is recorded on ones. and maybe it's the graphical difference, or the close similarities it bares with the real world in terms of lighting but our eyes can spot cheats easier in 3d than it can in 2d. thereby making a 3d animation "feel" like a 2d animation that much more of a greater feat. in 2d you can trick speed, weight, anatomy to make it look natural to the eye.. 3d is a bit harder and a bit more complicated because again.. you're more or less shooting on ones the entire animation. while there are tricks you can do to make things a bit easier, it's not like 2d where you can draw it out and capture it a certain way to make it happen.
